Microchip Technology SAMA5D3 XPLAINED User manual

2019 Microchip Technology Inc. DS50002884A-page 1
Scope
This user guide introduces the Microchip SAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation kit and describes the development and debug-
ging capabilities for applications running on a SAMA5D36 Arm®-based microprocessor unit (MPU).
This guide provides details on the SAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation kit. It is made up of four main sections:
•Section 1. “Evaluation Kit Specifications” describes the evaluation kit content and its main features.
•Section 2. “Power-Up” provides instructions to power up the SAMA5D3 Xplained board.
•Section 3. “Hardware Introduction” provides an overview of the SAMA5D3 Xplained board.
•Section 4. “Board Components” describes the SAMA5D3 Xplained board components.
Contents
• Boards
- One SAMA5D3 Xplained board
•Cables
- One Micro-AB type USB cable
• A welcome letter
Related Items
• SAMA5D3 Series Data Sheet
• SAMA5D3 Xplained Getting Started
SAMA5D3
X
PLAINED
SAMA5D3 Xplained Evaluation Kit User’s Guide
SAMA5D3 XPLAINED

SAMA5D3 XPLAINED
DS50002884A-page 2 2019 Microchip Technology Inc.
1. Evaluation Kit Specifications
1.1 Electrostatic Warning
1.2 Power Supply Warning
Table 1-1: Evaluation Kit Specifications
Characteristic Specifications
Temperature
Operating 0°C to +70°C
Storage -40°C to +85°C
Relative Humidity 0 to 90% (non-condensing)
RoHS status Compliant
Ordering code ATSAMA5D3-XPLD
WARNING
ESD-Sensitive Electronic Equipment!
The evaluation kit is shipped in a protective anti-static package. The board system must not be sub-
ject to high electrostatic potentials.
We strongly recommend using a grounding strap or similar ESD protective device when handling
the board in hostile ESD environments (offices with synthetic carpet, for example). Avoid touching
the component pins or any other metallic element on the board.
WARNING
Hardware Power Supply Limitation
Using a power adapter greater than 5Vcc (e.g. the 12Vcc power adapters from other kits such as
Arduino kits) may damage the board.
WARNING
Hardware Power Budget
Using the USB as the main power source (max. 500 mA) is acceptable only with the use of the on-
board peripherals and low-power LCD extension.
When external peripheral or add-on boards need to be powered, we recommend the use of an exter-
nal power adapter connected to a J2 DC Jack (can provide up to 1.2A on the 3.3V node).
Electrostatic
sensitive
device

2019 Microchip Technology Inc. DS50002884A-page 3
SAMA5D3 XPLAINED
2. Power-Up
Several power source options are available to power up the SAMA5D3 Xplained board.
The board can be:
• USB-powered through the USB Micro-AB connector (J6 connector - default configuration)
• Powered through an external AC-to-DC adapter connected via a 2.1 mm center-positive plug into the optional power jack of the
board. The recommended output voltage range of the power adapter is 5V at 2A.
• Powered through the Arduino shield
2.1 Power up the Board
Unpack the board, taking care to avoid electrostatic discharge. Simply connect the USB Micro-AB cable to the connector (J6).Then, con-
nect the other end of the cable to a free USB port of your PC.
2.2 Sample Code and Technical Support
After booting up the board, you can run sample code or your own application on the board. You can download sample code and get tech-
nical support from the Microchip website.
Linux®software and demos can be found on the website Linux4SAM.
WARNING
Unlike Arduino Uno boards, the SAMA5D3 Xplained board runs at 3.3V. The maximum voltage that
the I/O pins can tolerate is 3.3V. Providing higher voltages (e.g. 5V) to an I/O pin could damage the
board.
Table 2-1: Electrical Characteristics
Electrical Parameter Values
Input voltage 5 VCC
Maximum input voltage 6 VCC
Max DC 3.3V current available 1.2A
I/O Voltage 3.3V only

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3. Hardware Introduction
3.1 Introduction
The SAMA5D3 Xplained board is a fully-featured evaluation platform for Microchip SAMA5D3 series MPUs. It allows users to extensively
evaluate, prototype and create application-specific designs.
3.2 Equipment List
The SAMA5D3 Xplained board is built around the integration of a Cortex®-A5-based MPU (BGA 324 package) with external memory, dual
Ethernet physical layer transceiver, two SD/MMC interfaces, two host USB ports and one device USB port, one 24-bit RGB LCD interface
and one debug interface.
Seven headers, compatible with Arduino R3, are available for various shield connections.

2019 Microchip Technology Inc. DS50002884A-page 5
SAMA5D3 XPLAINED
3.3 Board features
Table 3-1: Board Specifications
Characteristics Specifications
PCB characteristics 125 x 75 x 20mm (10-layers)
Processor SAMA5D36 (324-ball BGA package) ARM Cortex-A5 Processor with ARM
v7-A Thumb2®instruction set, core frequency up to 536 MHz.
Processor clock sources 12-MHz crystal oscillator
32.768-kHz crystal oscillator
Memory 2 x 1Gb DDR2 (16M x 16 bits x 8 banks)
1 x 2Gb SLC NAND Flash (256M x 8 bits)
Optional on-board memory One Serial EEPROM SPI
One 1-Wire EEPROM
SD/MMC One 8-bit SD card connector
One optional 4-bit Micro-SD card connector
USB Two USB Hosts with power switch
One Micro-AB USB device
Display interface One LCD interface connector, LCD TFT Controller with overlay, alpha-
blending, rotation, scaling and color space conversion
Ethernet One Gigabit Ethernet PHY (GRMII 10/100/1000)
One Ethernet PHY (RMII 10/100)
Debug port One JTAG interface connector
One serial DBGU interface (3.3V level)
Expansion connectors
Arduino R3 compatible set of headers
The SAMA5D36 GPIO,TWI, SPI, USART, UART, Audio and ISI interfaces
are accessible through these headers.
Board supply voltage
5V from USB or power jack or Arduino shield
On-board power regulation is performed by a Power Management Unit
(PMU)
Battery On-board optional power Cap for CMOS backup
User interface Reset, wake-up and free user push button
One red user/power LED and one blue user LED

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4. Board Components
4.1 Board Overview
The full-featured SAMA5D3 Xplained board integrates several peripherals and interface connectors, as shown in Figure 4-1.
Figure 4-1: SAMA5D3 Xplained Board Overview
ATSAMA5D36
CU
1401 A
XXXXXXXXXX
ARM
J15 PIO Expansion
1Gb DDR2 Memory
1Gb DDR2 Memory
2Gb Nand Flash Memory
System Buttons
JTAG Interface
LCD Connector
Ethernet 10/100
GigaBit Ethernet
J18 PIO Expansion
Free User Push Button
ADC Inputs and CAN Interfaces
Debug Interface
SAMA5D36
Voltages and Reset Interface
ADC Inputs Expansion
Optional Supply Input
USB A Device
Supply Input
SPI Interface
J20 PIO Expansion
J19 PIO Expansion
XX
USB Host Interfaces
e
ctor
A
t

2019 Microchip Technology Inc. DS50002884A-page 7
SAMA5D3 XPLAINED
The SAMA5D3 Xplained board is equipped with the interface connectors described in Table 4-1.
Table 4-1: SAMA5D3 Xplained Board Interface Connectors
Header Interfaces to
J2 Main power supply
J6 USB-A device. Supports USB device using a Micro-AB connector
J7 (upper) USB-B Host. Supports USB host using a type A connector
J7 (lower) USB-C™ Host. Supports USB host using a type A connector
J23 Serial DBGU 3.3V level
J24 JTAG, 20-pin IDC connector
J10 SD/MMC connector
J11 Micro-SD connector
J12 Gigabit Ethernet ETH0
J13 Ethernet ETH1
J22 Expansion connector with all LCD controller signals for display module connection (QTouch®, TFT LCD
display with Touch Screen and backlight
C41 Optional SuperCap
J14–J21 Expansion connectors with Arduino R3 compatible PIO signals
– Various test points located on the board

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DS50002884A-page 8 2019 Microchip Technology Inc.
4.2 Function Blocks
Figure 4-2: Evaluation Kit Architecture
4.2.1 Processor
The SAMA5D3 Xplained board is built around the SAMA5D36, a Cortex-A5 application processor which combines high-performance com-
puting device with low-power consumption and a wide range of communication peripherals. It features a combination of user interface
functionalities and high data rate IOs, including LCD controller, touchscreen, camera interface, Gigabit and 10/100 Ethernet ports, high-
speed USB and SDIO.
The ARM Cortex-A5 supports the latest generation of DDR2 and NAND Flash memory interfaces for program and data storage. An internal
166-MHz multi-layer bus architecture associated with 24 DMA channels and two 64-Kbyte SRAM blocks, sustains the high bandwidth
required by the processor and the high-speed peripherals.
4.2.2 Clock Circuitry
The SAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation board features four clock sources:
• Two clocks are alternatives for the SAMA5D3 series processor main clock
• Two crystal oscillators are used for the GETH and Ethernet MII/RMII chip
Table 4-2: Main Components Associated with the Clock Systems
Quantity Description Component Assignment
1 Crystal for internal clock, 12 MHz Y1
1 Crystal for RTC clock, 32.768 kHz Y2
1 Oscillator for ethernet clock RGMII, 25 MHz Y3
1 Oscillator for ethernet clock RMII, 25 MHz Y4
JTAG
DBGU
JTAG & DBGU
SERIAL
DATA
Micro SD
CARD
10/100/1000
FAST ETHERNET
10/100
ETHERNET
SD
CARD
LCD
Connector FLASH ETH0 ETH1
PIO A,...EPIO A,...E
Single
PMU
Solution
5V INPUT
SAMA5D36
CORTEX®-A5 PROCESSOR
2Gb
DDR2
SDRAM
2Gb
NAND
FLASH
USB
DEVICE
USB
Host
x2
ANALOG Reference
VBAT
USER
LEDS PIO
Expansion Headers
Power rails
USB A,B,C
Reset
Force PwrOn
Push
Buttons
EBI
5V & 3V3
(Up to 4Gb)
(Up to 4Gb)

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SAMA5D3 XPLAINED
4.2.3 Power Supplies
The on-board power supply generation is based on the Active-Semi®Power Management Unit (PMU) featuring a 3-channel (3.3V / 1.8V
/1.2V or 1.0V) topology. For maximum efficiency, these supply channels are generated by three integrated step-down converters.
In addition to these 3 DCDC channels, 4 LDO channels with low noise and high PSRR performance are available for the application. These
channels are disabled at startup by default and can be turned on and adjusted under software control through an I²C link. They are also
used to supply the 2.5V VDDFUSE and the 3.3V VDDANA power inputs of the processor.
The power supply sequencing of the three primary channels is controlled by the PMU itself in full compliance with the SAMAD3 require-
ments. The turn-on sequence is: 3.3V first, then 1.8V and finally 1.2V.
Table 4-3 summarizes the power specifications.
WARNING
There is a known error on the ACT8865 I²C implementation. The port must be shut off after config-
uration or problems may occur with devices using the same I²C channel, e.g., TM43xx LCD display.
Refer to the ACT8865 data sheet at http://www.active-semi.com/ for more details.
WARNING
This evaluation kit was equipped with an engineering version of ACT8865 PMIC known as
ACT8865QI303-T. The singularity of this engineering version is that OUT4 and OUT5 outputs, nor-
mally enabled at power-up, are disabled at power-up. Consequently, VDDANA and VDDFUSE
power inputs of the processor are OFF when the external reset pin (NRST) is released. They must
therefore be turned on by software in the very first execution steps of the application. In particular,
VDDFUSE is needed to switch SAMA5D3 devices in Secure mode.
The engineering version ACT8865QI303-T of the active semi PMIC is end-of-life (EOL) and replaced
by ACT8865QI305-T devices that have OUT4 and OUT5 enabled by default at power-up. Refer to
the following application note:
https://active-semi.com/wp-content/uploads/ActiveSemi_-ACT8865QI305-
T_versus_ACT8865QI303-T.pdf
Table 4-3: Supply Group Configuration
Nominal Name Power Domains Power Source
3.0V VDDBU
The slow clock oscillator, the internal
32K RC, the internal 12 MHz RC and a part
of the system controller
Optional on-board battery
3.3V VDDIOP0 A part of peripheral I/O lines
PMU
3.3V VDDIOP1 A part of peripheral I/O lines
3.3V VDDUTMII The three USB interfaces
3.3V VDDOSC The main oscillator cells
3.3V VDDANA The analog-to-digital converter
1.2V VDDCORE The core, including the processor, the
embedded memories and the peripherals

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Note: Jumper footprints are available on-board to measure power consumption on main power lines. By default, the jumpers are not
implemented. They are short-circuited by a thin PCB wire. To use this functionality, open the short circuit and mount a 2-pin
jumper.
Figure 4-3: Board Power Management Schematic
1.2V VDDUTMIC The USB UTMI + core
PMU
1.2V VDDPLLA The PLLA cell
1.8V VDDIODDR DDR2 interface I/O lines
1.8V VDDIOM NAND, NOR Flash and SMC interface I/O
lines
3.0V to
3.3V ADVREF ADC reference voltage J15 header
2.5V VDDFUSE Fuse box for programming PMU
Table 4-3: Supply Group Configuration (Continued)
Nominal Name Power Domains Power Source
BP2 BP1
5V_MAIN
VDDCORE
VDDIOP1
VDDIOP0
VDDANA
VDDPLLA
VDDOSC
VDDIODDR
VDDIOM
AVDDL_PLL
DVDDL
AVDDL
FUSE_2V5
5V_MAIN
3V3
3V3
VDDUTMIC
3V3
TWCK_PMIC[7]
TWD_PMIC[7]
NRST
[5,9,10,11]
SHDN[5]
PC31
[7]
WKUP
[5]
PE30
[7]
(1V2)
(1V8)
(3V3)
(3V3)
(2V5)
RESETWAKUP or
Force Power ON
Auto
PWRON
(option)
PC27
PC26
C10
100nF
C10
100nF
L9 2.2uHL9 2.2uH
R14
50K
R14
50K
C21
2.2uF
C21
2.2uF
BP2BP2
C4
1uF
C4
1uF
C13
10uF
C13
10uF
R16 0RR16 0R
C23
2.2uF
C23
2.2uF
R17 2R2R17 2R2
C20
100nF
C20
100nF
MN1 ACT8865MN1 ACT8865
GNDP1
29
GNDA
2
INL45 5
VP1
31
INL67 6
GNDP2
28
VP2
26
GNDP3
14
EXPAD
33
VP3
16
NC2
25
VDDREF
23
nRST0
11
nIRQ
12
nPBSTAT
13
VSEL
20
NC1
18
PWRHLD
10
PWREN
17
SCL
21
SDA
22
REFBP
32
nPBIN
9
SW1 30
OUT1 1
OUT2 24
SW2 27
SW3 15
OUT3 19
OUT4 3
OUT5 4
OUT6 7
OUT7 8
C2
4.7uF
C2
4.7uF
JP1 DNP(JUMPER) JP1 DNP(JUMPER)
1 2
Q1
IRLML2502
Q1
IRLML2502
1
3
2
C5
1uF
C5
1uF
R19
100K 1%
R19
100K 1%
C1
4.7uF
C1
4.7uF
R15
0R
R15
0R
L11
180ohm at 100MHz
L11
180ohm at 100MHz
1 2
L8
180ohm at 100MHz
L8
180ohm at 100MHz
12
C18
47nF
C18
47nF
C22
2.2uF
C22
2.2uF
JP3 DNP(JUMPER)JP3 DNP(JUMPER)
1 2
R11 0RR11 0R
TP2
SMD
TP2
SMD
C26
4.7uF
C26
4.7uF
C6
1uF
C6
1uF
R6
1.5K 1%
R6
1.5K 1% L5 2.2uH
L5 2.2uH
JP4 DNP(JUMPER) JP4 DNP(JUMPER)
1 2
C25
100nF
C25
100nF
L6
10uH60mA
L6
10uH60mA
C3
4.7uF
C3
4.7uF
JP2 DNP(JUMPER) JP2 DNP(JUMPER)
1 2
R7
1.5K 1%
R7
1.5K 1%
C11
4.7uF
C11
4.7uF
R5 2R2R5 2R2
R8
10K
R8
10K
R4
1R
R4
1R
C17
100nF
C17
100nF
C9
10uF
C9
10uF
L7 2.2uHL7 2.2uH
C19
100nF
C19
100nF
L12
10uH60mA
L12
10uH60mA
C7
4.7uF
C7
4.7uF
R186 0RR186 0R
L3
180ohm at 100MHz
L3
180ohm at 100MHz
1 2
L1
180ohm at 100MHz
L1
180ohm at 100MHz
1 2
R12 49.9K
L10
180ohm at 100MHz
L10
180ohm at 100MHz
1 2
C15
10uF
C15
10uF
TP1
SMD
TP1
SMD
C14
100nF
C14
100nF
R18 1KR18 1K
C130
10nF
C130
10nF
C16
10uF
C16
10uF
C8
10uF
C8
10uF
R9 DNP(0R)R9 DNP(0R)
C24
2.2uF
C24
2.2uF
R13 0RR13 0R
R10 2R2R10 2R2
L4
10uH60mA
L4
10uH60mA
L2
180ohm at 100MHz
L2
180ohm at 100MHz
1 2
BP1BP1
C12
10uF
C12
10uF